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DHA Companies

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Overview

The Science Center’s Digital Health Accelerator (DHA) supports digital health companies ready to transition from research and development to sales. The DHA provides selected companies with funding, collaborative workspace, professional mentorship, and introductions to key healthcare stakeholders and investors in the Greater Philadelphia region. Participating companies accelerate from prototype development to customer acquisition. DHA curriculum matches companies to professionals with specific skills to help companies meet their individual milestones.

Competition for the program is fierce, we only accept six to seven companies per class. A diverse selection team comprised of of serial entrepreneurs and representatives of hospitals, the pharmaceutical industry, insurers/payers and investors select six to seven companies per class.

164

New Jobs Created

$20.6M

Generated in Revenue

$23.7M

Raised in follow-on investing

"The DHA is a great community of entrepreneurs-- a well selected group of excellence seekers. The ecosystem means a lot when you are an entrepreneur. The support of the Science Center has also been paramount for our credibility and progress."

- Christina Lopes, Founder & CEO of The One Health Company, participant in the second DHA class

What we provide

The DHA will help participating companies grow in the U.S. healthcare market and increase revenue through sales, partnerships and grants. Applicants must be willing to take advantage of the coaching and mentoring provided by the DHA and submit regular progress reports. The DHA will provide additional assistance as follows:

Up to $50,000 cash in operational support, to go from research and development into sales

Access to lab and incubator space at the Science Center in Philadelphia

Guidance in developing relevant business opportunities in the Greater Philadelphia market and beyond

Expert feedback and recommendations for company presentations and materials

Mentorship to complement expertise and operational gaps

Support and advice on capitalization, attracting investment, and increasing revenues, customized to each company

Introductions to the appropriate advisors, mentors, consultants, and support

Access to investors

Who Should Apply?

Successful applicants will be ready to establish operations in the Greater Philadelphia region. Applicants will have a product at least at prototype stage. Applicants must be ready, during the period of the award, to deploy it to generate initial sales or partnerships, or to scale sales and marketing efforts. Companies that best demonstrate the following characteristics through existing or planned activities will be considered for the program. We will look for these elements in our selections, but not every company will have all of these characteristics:

Focus on digital health solutions that are transformative, improve patient care and safety, and enhance wellness and patient independence

Willingness to form partnerships with university and/or other affiliates

Ability to create jobs in the Greater Philadelphia region

History of revenue generation or the ability to provide matching source of investment

Pennsylvania-based operations during the funding period

Funds expended in the Greater Philadelphia region

The application deadline for the current period has closed.

If you are unsure if you are a digital health company at the right stage of development to apply, or if you have other questions, please contact Program Manager Aron Starosta at DHA [at] sciencecenter.org.

Current DHA Companies

Flushable pregnancy tests, remote patient monitoring systems, augmented reality to prepare for emergency situations – these are among the seven technologies being developed by the third class of the University City Science Center’s Digital Health Accelerator (DHA).

2017 DHA Class:

CareCierge is a high-tech/high-touch benefit for employees who struggle to balance work while caring for an ill or aging loved one. CareCierge empowers employee caregivers with a personalized roadmap for care coordination and a trusted advisor to talk to, thereby reducing the lost productivity and increased healthcare expenditure that costs US Businesses $47 Billion/year.

ImmERge Labs uses virtual and augmented reality to reimagine how the world prepares for emergency situations. Using disruptive technologies to improve critical skills, ImmERge Labs transforms bystanders into rescuers through applications that integrate a physical manikin with highly realistic, multi-sensory simulations that technically, emotionally, and mentally prepare one to render life-saving interventions.

LIA Diagnostics is the first-ever, flushable and biodegradable pregnancy test. Lia uses innovative materials and unique manufacturing to provide women with a discreet, battery-and-plastic-free alternative. Through DHA, Lia is planning to develop a digital application that will help facilitate purchases, further develop the Lia brand, and provide post-test education.

PainQx is a diagnostic/software company that has developed a next-generation approach to objectively measure pain in humans. The PainQx platform achieves this by assessing neural activity from a patient’s brain and processing and decoding the data through its proprietary algorithms. The output is a pain biomarker that is directly correlated to a patient’s pain state. The PainQx system is currently being used as a clinical assessment tool by companies using pain as an endpoint to measure their drug’s and device’s efficacy.

RegDesk helps MedTech and PharmBio companies get their regulatory and reimbursement strategies right the first time. Using machine learning and the largest global network of compliance experts, RegDesk clients obtain reliable product-specific regulatory, reimbursement and market access insights globally, allowing for faster access to market, with reduced risk and lower cost.

repisodic enables hospitals and their patients to find high-quality, personalized post-acute care by offering the most comprehensive picture of these providers available anywhere – online for free. The repisodic platform connects post-acute care providers with discharging hospitals, patients, and their families to coordinate care and improve outcomes.

DHA Partners

The Digital Health Accelerator is funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Growth Accelerator Fund. The DHA has also received support from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development.